You may begin to sense a (surf’s up) theme.

Skateboarding legend turned writer-director Stacy Peralta is a Los Angeles kid through and through. He grew up in Mar Vista, attended Venice High School and today calls Santa Monica home. His first love, surfing, is the subject of his latest movie, “Riding Giants,” which opened last week. “It’s more a documentary than a surf film,” he says. Not surprisingly, he spends a good part of his weekend in the Pacific.

They’re a jazz trio

Friday night, my girlfriend, Stephanie, and my 13-year-old son, Austin, and I would probably go listen to some music. We go to some local hotels like Shutters or Casa del Mar because they have good jazz trios in the lounge/lobby. My son, he’s a gifted jazz pianist. He was awarded new talent of the year by the L.A. Jazz Society. So it started like, “Let’s do this because he’ll like it.” Then we were like, “This is great.” It’s a great place to sit and talk and have a drink and listen to music and watch people.

Or we go to this speakeasy jazz club in Santa Monica called the Vic, on Main Street near Ocean Park. It’s a real word-of-mouth-type deal in this Victorian house. They open this slat in the back door and you see someone’s eyeballs and they say, “What’s the password?” You give them the password and they escort you upstairs. They have some of the greatest jazz acts playing there. But you would never know this walking down the street. It’s a fantastic place because you feel like you’re going back in time and they serve these great dinners and drinks.

Surf and brunch I

Saturday morning, about 6:30 a.m., we all surf in Santa Monica at Bay Street. A term we also use to refer to Bay Street is Bay Dump or Bay of Funky. It’s not a world-class surf spot by any means. But that’s where I grew up surfing, and all my friends are out there.

Afterward, we come home and usually take a hot tub to thaw out and make a great brunch. Even my son gets involved. He likes making eggs.

The rest of the day we’d probably play in the garden. We have a collection of rare plants, about 1,000 different species, all sorts of succulents and stuff. I’ve gotten a lot of the collection at a place called Serra Gardens Landscape Succulents, right at Malibu. The guy who owns it has an absolutely stunning world-class collection of plants from South Africa and Madagascar.

The sea’s bounty

If you want to know the ultimate Saturday, we have a dinner party. We go to Santa Monica Seafood and we get a bunch of fish and come back here and barbecue it and have a group of our friends over. If we don’t do that, we might see a movie and have dinner at this teeny Japanese place on Pico called Yabu. They prepare sushi in a way that seems right. Aside from sushi, they make this spectacular warm burdock root salad.

Surf and brunch II

Sunday morning, I hate to say this, we’d go surfing again. And if we didn’t go to Santa Monica, we’d go to Sunset, right at PCH and Sunset. It’s a better break than Bay Street. It breaks more often. And the waves have more shape.

If we don’t come back here for breakfast, typically we’d go to Swingers, a rock ‘n’ roll coffee shop. It’s just a festive atmosphere, and they have a great selection. If you don’t want the typical eggs, you can get egg whites and tofu, or turkey loaf and mashed potatoes, not the usual things you would find at Norm’s or Carrows. The food is kind of hip.

Something else we usually do is go to this fruit and vegetable market on Centinela just north of Jefferson. It’s fantastic. Aside from farmers markets, I’ve not in this town found a place that has fresher produce. We go down there and load up. It’s one of the few places you can get peaches that actually taste like peaches.

-- Leslee Komaiko